Baked potato skins, the ultimate by product use up

On the The Staff Canteen site, a question was raised at the end of last month from a chef who does his mash the baked potato method, he asked if anyone in the forum had any ideas for utilizing the skins beyond the deep fried tater skins and dip route, I had a little (very little) time on my hands, and a tray of potatoes in the oven already cooking so thought I would give this a little thought and see what I could come up with.

Armed with my baked potatoes, I set to work to try a couple of different ideas. the 3 thoughts I cam up with were:

A) A baked potato milk ice cream

B) Baked potato skin mash (after a concerned comment about the colour), had to give it a go just to see for myself

C) Basic mash, infused with the flavour of baked potato skins

I took the skins, some milk, cream, multidextrin, glucose, thyme, garlic and bay leaf and set them on the edge of the stove to infuse without boiling, from these I passed one completely for the ice cream, placed the skins from another into a pacojet beaker and covered (just with the milk) and in the 3rd placed the potato scooped from the skins, with enough milk to again just cover.

the 3 beakers then were frozen for 24 hours, happy with the current flavours, just not quite ready for what the next day would bring.

The following day, I removed A), B) & C) and churned. I will now begin by dismissing C) as the starchiness of the mix damn near broke the pacojet and the end result was vile.

B) this however whilst struggling to churn due to a reasonable high starch level came out a reasonable colour and had good flavour, unfortunately due to the starchy nature of the product felt like eating a frzoen mashed potato, not great, I left this to defrost and set to churn the milk. This was to prove to be the revelation I was hoping for.

Once churned, I had guessed the glucose and multidextrin levels accurately and it churned through the machine beautifully. the end product was a great textured, herby flavoured potato milk and began thinking of applications such as a parmesan risotto with the ice cream and other thoughts. I then defrosted this alongside B) to see what results I would get hot.

The milk defrosted into a rich creamy liquid, the skin mash just defrosted, to this I added a little butter and proceeded to warm it through in the traditional method, whilst this was heating I heated the milk with a little xnathan and agar to creat a fluid gel for a creamy mash texture.

The skin mash had a nice earthy colour and good flavour, however the texture was that of wallpaper paste and was ridiculously gloopy, so back to the drawing board I go with that, however the milk fluid gel worked very well served hot and again a number of different applications spring to mind including using spherification to create a jacketless jacket potato?? Hmmmm

Anyway, this is how I have whiled away my time this week, does anyone have any thoughts on what common by-product that normally lines our bins that we may be able to get one or more dishes or garnishes out of?

left to right: milk gel, skin mash potato, plain mash (great, bad, bad)

30-Second Yoghurt Cake, 168 hours in the making.

 A while back I had a bit of success with a Chocolate and Beetroot Microwave 'coral' cake which was a combination of a two recipes and quite a few ingredients. It worked well on the first test only needing minor tweaking for version 2. I was happy with it, well for now anyway. I had plans for the torn pieces to go with a Beetroot Parfait I was testing from Johnny Iuzzini's Dessert four play book ( recipe was about 10 miles off from being ok...but I did rip off his presentation, well expanded on it and had some fun with it ), the parfaits another story..... had to run off to Sainbury's to get more beetroot half through so you could taste something other than pink creaminess. Anyway least after all the adjusting and tinkering I got a working recipe out of that experience.

After the reasonable ease of the Chocolate and Beetroot Microwave cake and the recipe from the incredible Natura book by Albert Adria, I was off to try out the Yoghurt cake recipe for my plan to put together a canapé with Aloe Vera Gel and the Yoghurt cake for the new canapé menu. I had always wanted to put the two flavours together after
 travelling through Japan a few years ago when I came across Yoghurt with chunks of Aloe Vera. It became a daily staple for me, absolutely loved it.

Straight from the book the recipe works ok but felt it was a bit too strong on the egg whites. I didn't have the Texturas Yopol Yoghurt powder but I was using a Sosa version. Maybe that was the problem? Quick phone call to my wife to ask for a favour to have a look on the internet while I was working away, she came across Michael Laiskonis's version from Le Bernardin and it's currently on their dessert menu. Test - No, way too soft and wet. Hmmm....
I brought in some Yoghurt from home the next day and adjusted the recipe to accommodate the extra liquid content in the recipe. The flavour was a bit deeper, softer crumb but still the texture just wasn't right. Next day I ordered some Yoghurt from our supplier, low fat natural Yoghurt come in. Whizzed up another version, flavour was still there but the texture had changed for the worse. Thinking it was the fat content and only having the low fat Yoghurt .1% fat. I tried adding a drop of oil to get back the texture and softness back. Nope, worst of them all.
I was almost ready to scrape the idea. Going over my notes of the various tests seeing which ones come out the best and what characteristics they possessed. So far it was the original, lacking flavour and ok structure and the one with Yoghurt from home better flavour but not as much volume. I compiled a recipe of the two, an average to say. No more Yoghurt meant it was time to go home and wait for more to come in the morning.

Over my morning Porridge, I checked out the fat content of the Yoghurt I had at home, 4.7%. Now that would explain the softer mouth feel I had back in test #2.
I boxed some up and jumped on my bike to work. Put the Yoghurt into my 'average' recipe.
At last I could feel I was getting close. Good texture, great holes and the flavour was almost there. Acceptable but I had one last thing I wanted to try. Greek Yoghurt, 10% fat and that meant waiting another day.
My perseverance paid off, the Greek Yoghurt added an extra depth in flavour and texture.
At last I was happy with my results.

I think the half of the problem was the fact that I've had the pleasure of having an amazing near perfect Yoghurt microwave cake at Arzak late last year. It was probably my second most favourite course from the whole experience. I think I've come close with my version but it's hard to compete with the R&D that goes on at Arzak.....

The original plan for my canapé with the cake and Aloe Vera, well hasn't come to much. Didn't even put it in on the new canapé menu.
That was partly dew to the fact I couldn't track down a good supply of solid Aloe Vera Gel.
There is another source I'm looking into for the Aloe. While I was travelling around Australia I stopped into a random Shop for a cold drink when I was walking around Sydney. I grabbed a bottle of White Grape and Aloe Vera juice with chunks of Aloe Vera in it. Thought it sounded nice at the time, well I can still remember how refreshing and delicious it was. Don't think I'll ever forget that day.
So far I've found just one place that sells it in the UK. Just another hurdle I've got to jump over, starting to get  used to the obstacles. Eventually I get around them.




??? Yoghurt or Yogurt ???

Menu change, 16th April 2010 a new blog item

I was thinking today about what to write about next, have had fun lately with some nice ideas translating into some equally nice dishes, however as you may be aware these can be sometimes spread apart, but I tweak my menu weekly generally, and we photograph EVERYTHING, much to our waiting staffs annoyance, they have to wait around whilst 3 chefs get cameras and phones out to catalogue our dishes.

So I though I would include a somewhat regular slot of some of the more interesting tweaks we do to our menu as and when it happens, not every change though as sometimes the dishes are quite simple, or we simply do not have the time to take any decent photographs.

Lets start with 'Coquille Saint Jaques'

my commmis Tom has been running away with dish ideas over the last few months with a great emphasis on foaming and jellying and losing touch with the basics that make a dish great, so I set him the challenge of recreating this classic dish. I was first concerned that I hadn't shortened the leash enough when I started seeing tuilles being made out of breadcrumbs and balls ready for spherification in his mis-en-place.

Thankfully on this occasion he pulled it off and the dish is pretty as a picture and eating quality is excellent

scallop, button mushroom, duchesse potato, bread tuille, vin blanc spherification

the sphere itself is great fun, just warm enough to burst on the plate with just the right amount of sauce, the lemon puree adds acidity against the vin blanc and the duchesse.

the spheres waiting for an order

up close and personal

Next, I gave Ricardo, my sous chef, a similar goal to recreate something a little more classical and he chose a traditional portugese meat platter, translating this down was quite a task but, like Tom, pulled off only what can be described as a fantastic dish, has everything going for it, balance of flavour, texture and whilst it is a handsome portion, still leaves you wanting more at the end of it. Well done.

Poached chicken

sausage meat with choizo and black pudding

crisp pig ear

beef fillet

carrot puree

potato

turnip

chorizo oil

(and missing from this shot) Savoy cabbage

drizzle of jus and micro parsley

Herb wrapped balotine of salmon, wye valley asparagus, new potatoes

does exactly what it says on the box, the only tweak is glueing the salmon together with activa, other than that it is designed to show off new season English asparagus (and from Monday, Jersey royals) to their very best, simplicity is key to this dish.

Sea bream, fricasse of vegetables, sweetcorn veloute, popcorn cream and chicken popcorn

The bream is simply steamed, vegetables warmed in the veloute then a splash of popcorn bubbles and for texture a few pieces of popping corn I have popped in chicken fat and seasoned whilst hot. straightforward and nice and light for this lovely weather.

Last (but in no way least) G has produced ANOTHER Rhubarb and custard variation, the versatility of this combination and how it can be presented is incredible. With this incarnation he has introduced a little bitterness in the form of a yogurt coral cake and yogurt ice cream. Oldie but goldie and our guest do not tire of it any more than we do not tire of showing off this great combination in anyway our imagination takes us.

Anyway, hope this will help keep this blog more interesting to read, we will continue with the random other things we post about, but this should lessen the occasional drought of posts that we are guilty of having more than we really should.

Thanks to the guys this week for making my life much easier by coming up with such great dishes.

Gods molecular gastronomy

Odd title, but I take no credit for the work involved in creating it

but cannot live without it, regardless of what so called health experts tell me

as a chef for quite some time, I know the effects of not enough salt, not funny

All I can say everything in moderation

unless its fantastic

thanks be to God, for the saturated pools of the Camargue

Amen!

Risotto of herbs, parsley puree, horseradish

Recently we have had the Danish club of London join our membership, this led this Welsh boy to wonder what do Danes eat?

Through many a google trawl, I kept coming up with breaded plaice, open sandwiches, mini meatballs and the like of homely comforting food, stuff I could happily include in my bar menus, but nothing that really jumped out and grabbed me as restaurant food.

My background is in 5 star hotels, running minimum 2 AA rosette kitchens and like to feel that my food has not diminished by moving 'behind closed doors', I still carry the same culinary ethos and try to improve what I do each and every day, even if I do not sell a single dish to 'the general public', so consequently cannot be judged by the guide books. Not that I necessarily agree with these guides, they are, whether you like them or not, a benchmark by which we are judged. Some of my old restaurant customers indeed chose to dine with us, purely because they had found us on the AA website.

Anyway guidebook digression aside, our restaurant food is a little more refined than our bar offering, and as we do not cater for a huge amount of guests each day, I do not have restrictions on the amount of effort necessary to produce each dish as we have the time to do so. This does not come at the expense of flourishing the dish more than is genuinely required, the question is always asked 'does it need anything else', as long as it ticks all the flavour and texture boxes and it is visually appealing then it is good for the menu, sometimes however this can take 8 or 9 visits to the plate, but hey we have the time 'generally'

back to the dish at hand, I came accross this from Foodsnob's blog which is a great write up about one of Denmarks leading restaurants Noma, and was inspired by the razor clam dish to utilize these flavours in my own interpretation, during the testing I used razors which were fantastic, however for my current menu I had a scallop dish already waiting which made me re-think and produce a vegetarian version, where I have utilized salsify rather than razor clams, the result is a heavenly combination of the herbs, the aldente bite of the rice with the crisp rye bread, finished with the earthy salsify and creamy horseradish.

herb risotto (parsley, chervil, tarragon)

parsley puree

braised then roasted salsify

horseradish fluid gel

beet gel

crisp rye bread

olive oil

micro parsley

wood sorrel

Easter eggs, the long good friday

I have often wanted to make my Mrs. an egg for Easter, but usually opt for a last minute Lindor or Wispa egg on my way home from work on Easter Saturday, as I am now in a job that shuts down for bank holidays and left with a 4 day weekend I had finally run out of excuses to put my money where my mouth is.

One teeny problem, having always been well staffed in the pastry department, I have not had the neccesity to temper my own chocolate i realised for over 15 years, sure I have come up with desserts, but with the constraints of everyday work have often asked of my pastry section to do the nitty gritty of the mis-en-place before I step in at the 11th hour and take the credit for the creation, slightly different here, G is a great teacher and a chef who always pushes himself to the limit regardless of business levels, so I have taken to producing my creations and re-learning the pastry section piece by piece.

So Thursday, I jump on with G to make a god awful mess (I mean make eggs for our members with him), during this time (a whole 3 hours, where G tempered all the chocolate for me, so didn't practise any myself), I picked his brains on tempering, decorating and making the eggs themselves.

Armed with this new(ish) knowledge, and about 3kg of chocolate and some moulds in my bag I set off home with the express mission to make my darling Mrs. an egg within an egg within an egg. oh did I tell you how much experience I had? Not!

Firstly I did not think of one small issue, that would be my one small kitchen, if I thought I had made a mess at work with my ample stainless steel surfacing, my wooden worktops (tiny), and the ins and outs of family life over the Easter holidays certainly didnt mean that I was lessening the mess, quite frankly the opposite, and we will be cleaning that up for some time, a lot of it on the Good Friday hence the title

All that said, quite soon I had all my varying size moulds full of appropriate size chocolate shells, awaiting extraction (the tricky bit), and after trashing the first go of the larger shells had enough chocolate still to keep going.

I am happy not to have had to dash out to a 7-11 at the last minute, and managed to produce exactly what I had aimed for, but I have learned a valuable lesson that my Father always told me, and that was to never ask someone to do a job that I am not capable of doing myself, and from now on I think I will set out to teach myself some of the basics that we chefs can neglect from time to time, especially when we run larger brigades It is fine to utilize someone elses expertize, but not when you have no idea yourself, learn it then delegate, my new kitchen ethos.

note the safety tea-towel holding the egg off its stand at the front, probably the most nerve racking moment was removing this just seconds before presenting the egg

and as you can just see, the middle egg inside. took Mrs. W. 2 days before she would crack this layer

Duck, Rhubarb, Apple

Doesn't matter how many different foods I cook with and discover, I will always revert to duck. I have come to the conclusion that it simply has to be my favourite meat in any guise. I love the tenderness and moisture from a well cooked and rested breast with the fat rendered to nothing but the thinnest crisp skin, to the unctious quality of a superbly confited leg. the fat itself is a great transporter of flavour and handled with care the carcass can be used to make a wonderful deep jus. And finally the liver is just enough for me on toast with a little marmalade whilst contemplating the rest of the bird.

As forced rhubarb is something quite special at the moment thought the pairing would be essential cooking for our menu this week. Wanting to introduce some spice without turning into an asian interpretation so began by making a few pickling liquors, one for the rhubarb, one for the compressed apple, and a dry rub for the duck itself.

The rhubarb was marinated under vacuum for 6 hours then poached in the bag at 70C for 12 minutes until it just starts to give under my fingers

The result was perfectly tender, the strings of the skin were present but break down easily in the mouth and no need to artificially boost the colour. The apple was cubed and soaked in an acidic pickle then compressed at full vacuum, the trim of both with a little of the rhubarb pickle I used to make a simple puree.

The duck breast, I dry rubbed with a combination of spices and left to dry cure overnight, then placed skin side down in a cold pan and brought up to a high heat to render off as much of the fat as possible from the very finely scored skin. this was chilled and bagged, we then cook this sous-vide for 1 hour at 60C, and then allowed to rest for a further 20 minutes.

As this softens the skin, we then return it to a cold pan and bring up again to render the last of the fat and crisp up the skin, it is then carved and the plate arranged.

Duck breast sous-vide

Rhubarb

Compresse apple

Ruhbarb/apple puree

Roasted Bok-choi

Gingerbread puree

Duck and apple reduction

sorrel & coriander

Chicken ballotine, wild mushroom fricasee and foie gras jelly

And the jelly from the previous post is used for...

Ballotine, stuffed with mushrooms, calves liver and spinach

agar triangle of mushroom fricasse

caramelized foie gras jelly

foie gras 'tapioca' rocks

parsley

Foie gras jelly, caramelized just one gram off

just one more gram of Agar, and this one will be ready to go.

Foie gras jelly

next the ballotine to go with it

BITTER TASTE, sideways step not quite off topic

Been a while, with apologies

we have a few posts to deliver, just not a huge amount of time to deliver them, shouldn't moan about being busy really. Also clocked up the BIG 40 last week, so still recovering from that, post party post on its way, Sally put on a great party and spread for me pushing herself something silly, and having never made one in her life attempted a croquembouche as a centrepiece (oddly was my birthday cake, not wedding) but the onlyway she could make something to get that many bloomin' candles into. Absolutely gorgeous it was too.

anyway, digression aside, this post is about a book, written by David Evans, an ex club chef (like myself, just not ex yet) and a cracking read, I felt it really deserved as big a plug as I can give it, so here is a brief excerpt from the book and a link to a blog where it can be picked up at an absolute bargain, if you like stories from the coalface of kitchen life then get off my blog, click the link and get a copy.

normal service will be resumed soon, with the repair of my laptop keyboard nearly complete (only the left hand side keys work) and some dishes and thoughts in the bag, we should be fulfilling our promise of posting what we play very soon.

anyway digressing (AGAIN), the book...........

About the Book: With a reputation forged in France, Jack Kennedy was the pick of the new crop of British-born chefs, and when he teamed up with a Mayfair socialite intent on establishing a restaurant to rival the world’s finest, the prospect of becoming a rich man was overshadowed by his yearning for international stardom.

But the dream turned into a nightmare when the owner decided to turn the restaurant into a private members club.

Maybe if Jack hadn’t invested his life savings he would never have risked life and limb to escape the golden handcuffs, but when his scam to recoup his stake backfired so unexpectedly, he resorted to extortion.

It would prove to be the biggest mistake he ever made

you can read up more on the Author HERE

Happy reading.